Barclays Bank

I am delighted to confirm that Barclays Bank will be working with Business Students at WLC - Level 6 and Level 5.  Charlotte Ates and Sharon Meek will be working closely with Vanita Krishan from Barclays and the first stage will take place in October 2015.

Stage 1 - Finding Employment (Workshop)

Stage 2 - CV Surgery

Stage 3 - Interview Skills

Stage 4 - Placement

If you would like to be involved in some of the great community links with Barclays Bank, please encourage all students (not just for business) to look at the following information and then download the app on their phones/tablets https://www.barclayslifeskills.com/

This is all thanks to the hard work and excellent networking of Elaine Campbell and Margaret Hewitt.

Allan McGregor brings his Photography Exhibition to WLC 'Breathing Space'

Photographer Allan McGregor’s ‘Breathing Space’ exhibition is being hosted at West Lothian College’s Creative Centre Gallery from Tuesday 13 October to Friday 11 December, from 9am to 4pm.  The exhibition is free and open to the public.

 

The exhibition is a powerful and sometimes poignant documentary- style portrayal of a suburban area of Scotland’s capital that includes Craigmillar, Niddrie, Greendykes and Newcraighall in severe economic decline in the early 1990s.

 

The intentional repetitive nature of this cohesive body of work highlights how the social and physical structure of an area can quickly deteriorate leading to a living space where its inhabitants become imprisoned in a wasteland with almost no prospective employment opportunities. However bleak and desolate the urban environment had become those inhabitants are portrayed in a community spirit that celebrates survival and which appears to offer more than a ray of hope.

 

Hazel Brady, Head of Business and Creative at West Lothian College said: “We are delighted to host this exhibition which we hope will inspire our own photography students.  The exhibition is free and open to the public, I’m sure that it will be of interest to all of our students, members of the wider community, and local photographers.”

 

The photographer, originally from Galloway, worked as photographer for the Craigmillar Festival news in the community from 1989-1991. His vision then through the undertaking of this body of work was an attempt at portraying suburban Scotland in a state of severe neglect and abandon where its citizens had become disenfranchised and almost forgotten by the rest of the nation.

 

The exhibition at West Lothian College concludes a summer tour of of Allan McGregor’s work which was previously shown at the White House Galleries in Craigmillar, Edinburgh from June through to September earlier this year.

 

A limited edition softback publication (90 pages containing all 104 images of which 70 are exhibited) entitled Breathing Space signed and numbered by the author is available on a first come first served basis.

 

Framed images only from the exhibit are also for sale with a percentage of the proceeds being apportioned to support the college’s HNC photography student group’s future European field trip planned for March 2016.

 

NC Accounting Students - ICAEW BASE Championships (Chartered Accounting)

Jenna Redpath has encouraged 5 students from NC Accounting to be part of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Base Championship which takes place on the 18th of November.  This opportunity is open to all students (not just accounting) and the main aim is for students to gain an understanding of:

• communication team working;
• decision making
• consideration
• adding value
• problem solving
• technical competence

This is the email sent to the students to confirm their part in the project:

Congratulations team – you are all now part of the ICAEW BASE championships!

Thank you for coming forward and volunteering.

As agreed the first heat will take place on Wednesday the 18^th November at Celtic Park. Please can you come to College and meet me in it3 at 8am – we will take a minibus through to Celtic park.

Please can you read through the frequently asked questions below starting from: “What is the dress code for the event” to familiarise with the competition guidelines:

 

http://careers.icaew.com/events/BASE/BASE-teachers/BASE-FAQS

Business Gateway Drop In Sessions

Business Gateway West Lothian have recently started a regular surgery in the College Library.  An experienced Business Advisor will be available to meet students and staff to discuss business start-up enquiries.  The drop in surgery is scheduled to run every Wednesday between 2pm and 5pm (from 7th of October).


Business Gateway in West Lothian provides a comprehensive package of support including:

• Business Start Up Support - evaluation of business idea, business planning, sourcing funding, legal requirements.
• Business Growth Service - practical support to existing business to help them grow and develop.
• Business Information Service - market and statistical information, access to industry specific reports, property search.
• Workshops and Training - specialised business workshops
• Links to other business support - West Lothian Chamber of Commerce, Federation of Small Business, Scottish Enterprise, The Prince's Trust Youth Business Scotland
• Funding Support - access to local and national funding

The advisor will be happy to support students and staff with any business related enquiries.

Free Business and Accounting course starting Monday

Just spotted a free four week course starting on Monday the 28th September relating to Business & Finance and wanted to share. 

More information here:

http://careers.icaew.com/events/money-in-business

I have asked NC Accounts and Business level 5 students to sign up for this today and will be incorporating some of the material they are learning on this course as part of PDP for the Accounts students

Megan Waugh and fellow students from Clark College

CPD Saturday

Selling bread at Tramstop Market # cpd #volunteering

#enterprise #positive #employeeengagement #socialenterprise

DC Hero - NC Accounting

As some of you may know, I started working on creating a fun superhero character to help accounting students remember key information relating to double entry book-keeping.

The students are getting right behind this project and have actually now designed the look of "DC Hero"

DC Hero stands for : Debit Credit hero and all over his body are memory tools to  help students record financial transactions in the correct place:

The students are now putting together a script for recording a news report on DC hero at the new Sky media centre on the 9th October. Doug is using the IT class he has with the accounting students to create the script on Power point for us to send to Sky in advance and Barabara-Ann is about to get her sewing kit out to actually make a real life DC Hero suit! It's all happening in Business & Creative :)

Once the news report has been filmed I will post the video link here on the blog!

Business level 5 students having a blast in IT class:

To help the students collate fun data to make graphs on excel - we decided to all go on the buck'n'bronko to get each individuals time.

Highest time was 19 seconds and the lowest was 1.....

Megan Waugh - Business Student wins prestigious scholarship in Washington, USA.

One of West Lothian College’s top Business students has won a prestigious scholarship allowing her to continue her studies in the USA.  

Megan Waugh, from Eliburn in Livingston, recently won the first Scottish Scholarship in Clark College, Washington, USA.  Megan will spend two years studying in the US and has plans to return to West Lothian College to complete her BA degree in Business Management.

Megan said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for me and I can’t wait to get started.

“I have just turned 18 and worked hard to achieve an A in my course work. I found out about the scholarship through my lecturer (Beth Brownlee) and thought it was a once and a lifetime opportunity so decided to apply, thinking nothing of it. 

“I'm most looking forward to the culture change and meeting new friends. I'm also looking forward to having new experiences as well as furthering my education at the same time.”

Megan hopes to join a graduate programme in the financial industry once her academic career comes to an end.

“I’d like to thank my course lecturers and Beth Brownlee in particular for bringing the scholarship to my attention.

Megans mum has updated West Lothian College by telling us that Megan has arrived safely in Portland Oregon.  Just to make sure she is ready for what lies ahead her host family have taken her to their “vacation beach house” for 5 days.  We thought she was going to study!
Lucky Megan wish it was me, I will keep you all up to date with this fabulous opportunity and all it brings.


Napier University have confirmed that and they very much appreciate that the international study programme she is undertaking is a fantastic opportunity and also that she wishes to see if this can be utilised to secure potential year three entry to our BA Business Management course at WLC.   

They suggest that she applies early in the cycle [via UCAS] and applies for the WLC version of the BA Business Management degree.  They would hope to be able to give some form of conditional offer building on her existing credits from WLC and the 39 US credits she will be studying in Oregon.

 

Well done Megan!

 

 

 

NC Level 5 Business and NC Accounts Business Entrepreneur Challenge

As part of the 4 pack (business enterprise units) students were set a group challenge using one of the new Tutor2U resources - 'The Guru'.  This activity required them to come up with innovative business ideas to meet various situations eg 10K foil take-away boxes ordered in error.

Students were very engaged and worked well under time pressure to come up with some really creative ideas.  They had a number of challenges to complete and were scored on each activity - the winning team was rewarded with sweets and pens presented in a 'trophy'.

Simple idea, great results! 

If you want to check out this or any of the other resources I have copied them to Business and Creative, Teaching Resources area on the server and I have the hard-copy/CD's on my desk.  These are editable resources that we can adapt as necessary.

Charlotte

Events students loved their induction - great feedback!

I really enjoyed the induction yesterday everyone seems lovely!

Thanks so much for today you were really helpful and made it sound so exciting!